Triple Lock Shooter

[reddog reddog]

What would be the approximate value of a 1910 Triple Lock? Nice non factory re-nickel, barrel professionally shortened to 4 inches, mechanically excellent, looks cool. Mother of pearl grips.

Thanks for your help!

 

[DCWilson]

Well, most collectors will tell you that the value has been destroyed by the chop and refinish. It still gets points for being a TL, but I don't think I'd be interested at much over $500.

 

[murphydog]

If it is mechanically sound, I think it would depend greatly on the appearance of the refinish. If the stampings and rollmarks are still sharp I would guess mid-high 3 figures, and $100-200 lower if it has been heavily buffed out.

 

[reddog reddog]

I am pretty sure the barrel has been shortened due to a slight seam around the front sight. Is there a better way to tell if it has been shortened?

Thanks

 

[DCWilson]

Are the patent dates still intact? Has the front sight been set down on top of them, or have the patent dates been fit into the available space?

 

[bmg60]

Hi
4 inch Triple locks have the roll marks on the right side of the barrel.
not the top.
Jim Fisher

 

[reddog reddog]

The left side of the barrel says 44 S&W Special. There are no rollmarks on the top or the right side. May have been polished off.

 

[rhmc24]

Depending on the prep done before the nickel, I have paid up to $1200 pretty much as you describe. Pearl grips if perfect for an N frame are worth upward of $200.

 

[Dave T]

I am in no way trying to argue with David Wilson but I would be willing to bet there isn't a dealer or gun shop in this country who would offer a Triple Lock in the condition described for $500. They just don't think that way.

Dave

 

[DCWilson]

I should probably clarify. I don't expect anybody to take $500 for that gun, but that's about what I would consider my max if someone offered me a chopped and refinished TL. I bought a couple of blue TL targets last year that had been refinished decades ago, and I paid about twice that much for each them. I consider a decent old refinish to be almost an original finish. A TL with a good refinish is still a TL, and I would consider paying up to $1200-1500 for a refinished TL if the job has been carefully done.

I'm not talking exclusively about old refinishes, either. A modern master refinisher can do a job on a TL that would not drive me away.

 

[Tom K]

I should probably clarify. I don't expect anybody to take $500 for that gun, but that's about what I would consider my max if someone offered me a chopped and refinished TL. I bought a couple of blue TL targets last year that had been refinished decades ago, and I paid about twice that much for each them. I consider a decent old refinish to be almost an original finish. A TL with a good refinish is still a TL, and I would consider paying up to $1200-1500 for a refinished TL if the job has been carefully done.

I'm not talking exclusively about old refinishes, either. A modern master refinisher can do a job on a TL that would not drive me away.

Not to rag on you Dave or get too far off-topic, but these statments seem contradictory. The original poster said that it was a nice re-nickel, and that the barrel had been professionaly shortened. It appears to me that these fit your criteria for the higher price range - not to mention MOP grips, assuming they are real. (Unless it's just the shortened barrel that reduces it $700+ to you.)

Just goes to show how tricky it is to maintain internal consistency, much less assign a value for a gun that none of except the OP have seen. My own personal "what is it worth" varies from day to day depending on mood, bank account, what I've just bought, what D.C. Wilson has just bought and that I covet, and so on.

All that said, I paid $900 a couple of years ago for just what the OP described, shown here alongside a Ladysmith. Did I overpay? Apparently it was worth $900 to me, at that time.

(It's actually cost me a lot more than that, because since then I've bought a nickel M&P with MOP and a nickel Regulation Police that I wouldn't have, if I didn't already have the Triple Lock and Ladysmith bookends. See how a sick mind can work?)

 

[Dan M]

IMO a chopped anything relegates it to shooter value, I Have bought and sold several T-locks over the past few years right around the $450 mark, last year at Tulsa I sold three, all for $450. I would walk for anymore than $500, for an altered t-lock unless it had some reason I could justify. but that just me.

Dan M

 

[reddog reddog]

Triple Lock Value

Do you have any more of those $450.00 Triple Locks you are wanting to get rid of?

Thanks